1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to genetic markers and more specifically to polymorphisms associated with bovine breed.
2. Background Information
Classification of individual animals in a livestock population has often relied on a priori groupings of individual animals on the basis of parentage and registration with a Breed Association. If these criteria are not known or not available, animals can be classified as a member of a breed or combination of breeds based on phenotype or geographic location. For example, a bovine animal with a black coat color is frequently classified as an Angus—a breed distinguished by having a black coat color. Further, a bovine animal with a pronounced hump over the shoulder region, pendulous ears and loose skin on dewlap and throat is classified as Brahman. These phenotypes such as coat color, ear and hump appearance are readily observable by livestock producers and frequently used for the basis of breed classification.
Two possible options for classifying an individual bovine animal into a population are:                1) Assign an animal to a population based on known or assumed parentage, phenotypic appearance or trait value for some phenotype, or        2) From a set of predefined populations (such as breeds), sample DNA from a number of members of each population to estimate allele frequencies in each population. Using the allele frequencies, it is possible to compute the likelihood a given genotype originated in each population and individuals can be assigned to population on the basis of these likelihoods (Pritchard, J. K., et al., Genetics 155: 945-959 (2000)).        
Both strategies (above) rely on defining a set of populations. A classification based on phenotype or geographic locality may not accurately describe the genetic structure of a population if similar phenotypes can arise despite differences in genotype (Rosenberg, N. A., et al., Genetics. 159: 699-713 (2001)). Coat color in cattle is determined by one or a few loci that are inherited in a well-known manner (Olson, T. A. 1999. Genetics of colour variation. In: Fries, R. and Ruvinsky, A. (eds.) The Genetics of Cattle—CABI Publishing, Wallingford.). It is relatively easy for livestock breeders to introgress new genes for coat color into a population (such as a breed) resulting in phenotypes that were not previously present.
Some beef marketing systems rely on accurate determination of breed of animal. Of the 41 brands of beef certified by the USDA, 33 name a breed and of these, 30 name Angus, two name Hereford and one names Piedmontese (Smith, G. C., available on the inter-net at ansci.colostate.edukan/beef/smith7.pdf). To date, the only methods available to qualify animals for these systems are known or assumed parentage or phenotypic appearance. There is an opportunity to improve accuracy of individual animal qualification using the allele frequencies to compute the likelihood that a given genotype originated in specific breed population.
It is critical to know the breed of cattle entered into and qualifying from branded beef programs when those branded beef programs include breed specifications. In particular, knowledge of breed composition is important for the following:                1) to verify claims for breed type or breed composition associated with breed-specific marketing programs. Verification of claims for breed type or breed composition has not been possible because no available technology could classify a bovine animal to a particular population or infer the breed composition of an individual animal. Currently, the only bovines accepted by breed are those within the seedstock sector where the records of individual animals are maintained by Breed Associations or in commercial populations where cattle are recorded in a performance registry usually by a Breed Association. These total breed-identified cattle likely comprise some five percent of the national beef cattle population. Therefore, standardization of claims for breed or breed type is very loose and limited to a small fraction of animals contributing to the beef supply; and        2) to implement management strategies for the feeding of cattle to optimize the pre-harvest growth and development and post-harvest fabrication of their associated beef products. Efficiencies in production from feeding, sorting, managing and marketing cattle can be obtained by identifying and matching breed-specific phenotypic data for feedlot, carcass and meat quality traits. Where breeds cannot be distinguished on the merit of parentage and simply measured phenotypic differences, a purely genetic analysis provides the most suitable test to assign animals to a population (Rosenberg, N. A., et al., Genetics 159: 699-713 (2001)). Only if a correspondence between genotype and known parentage classification is established can these characteristics also serve as appropriate classification tools.        
Accordingly, there remains a need for methods and compositions that provide information regarding bovine breed.